Is there a hearing aid price bubble?

If you have been through the process of getting a hearing aid, you probably must have scratched your head when looking at the bill. Hearing aid prices typically range from $1,500 to $3,500 per unit. Double that if you need one for each ear! To the average American household, this is equivalent of up to 2 months of income! Here is a detailed explanation of why hearing aids are so expensive and if there are any low cost hearing aids out there!

Escalation of Hearing Aid Prices: Why No Low Cost Hearing Aids?

While the price itself seems exorbitant, what is even worse is its continuous pace of growth: in the last decade the price of an average Behind the Ear (BTE) hearing aid has more than doubled. Even today, price points are not receding. Typically, we don’t see low cost hearing aids.

Most hearing aids today are made up of digital signal processors. What is surprising is that digital technology was expected to reduce the production cost of a hearing aid. After all, digital technology has also made consumer electronics far less costly: think of how the cost of an average DVD player has plunged over the last decade.

The components of a hearing aid are indeed commoditized: they cost at most $50 to $150 per device but can go as low as a few dollars. If on top of this, most major manufacturers have shifted their production to low-cost China (e.g. Phonak), why do consumers still see rising price levels?

For a while, increasing amounts of R&D spend shifted towards developing sophisticated signal processing software that tackled anything from complex speech recognition situations to effective noise cancellation. However, that has become standard too.

Manageable Hearing Aid Prices: Where are the Low Cost Hearing Aids?

More importantly, manufacturers have spent substantial R&D resources making the devices smaller, more powerful and packed with myriads of new features: Bluetooth, wireless integration, remote controls, 20+ channels. However, the improvements in alleviating hearing loss are becoming increasingly marginal: for most people there is no notable perceived benefit beyond 4-5 channels. Many argue that devices nowadays are over-engineered for the average user with mild or moderate hearing loss – however it gives manufacturers an excuse to charge higher prices by introducing “newer and better” models. Think about it this way: if you need to get from A to B, a Rolls Royce would definitely make the ride more enjoyable than a Honda. But the Honda will get you from A to B just as well, in a safe and comfortable manner. It seems that when it comes to hearing aids you don’t have the choice to opt for the Honda: you are forced to buy the Rolls Royce.

However, by far the most important factor for the current hearing aid price levels has to do with the underlying industry structure; the relationship between manufacturers, audiologists and end-patients. Have you ever pondered at how on earth a few components costing at most $100, assembled in China, suddenly turn into a $2,500 hearing aid? While many recent events suggest that low cost hearing aids might be right around the corner (Audicus is one example) this pricing bubble is material for many posts to come.

Can hearing aids be bought over the counter, with no prescription in the USA? Will insurance pay for an over the counter purchase or do they demand the services of an Md or audiologist? In truth, all that is needed is a curve of hearing sensitivity versus frequency. You then program the hearing aid to provide gain at the deficient frequencies. It is not rocket science, but simple miniaturized and equalized audio amplification and feedback control. A good device should cost $150-250 or so per ear, plus the testing and gain matching, which can be done in less than 1/2 an hour, so $250-350 is all that it should cost.

I am an audiologist and I can tell you I often prescribe $395/unit brand name hearing aids in Ontario, Canada. Health Insurance as well as many community groups help fund hearing aids. Hearing aids can still be very expensive but in Ontario the minimum cost to the end user is much lower than $1500/unit.

That’s cause americans hate socialism and love capitalism. It’s all about the money and profit, nothing to do with helping others. The cost of manufacture of hearing aids of high quality is at best 100 dollars. Everything else ist just profiting off hear impared people. Socialism rocks, Capitalism sucks.

Post 1, non-technical: My knee-jerk reaction is that the reason for the high cost is two-fold; an industry that has a high overhead method of sales, an industry that is reliant on insurance coverage thus requiring the devices be medically approved and limiting the availability. Regarding this last reason, if you had a hearing aid that cost $500 but was not covered by insurance, would you gain enough market share to compete with a $3000 hearing aid that was covered by insurance?

Post 2, possible solution: If the answer to the second part of my first post is yes, (sub $1000 hearing aids are competitive in a non-insurance covered market), then let’s launch a business to do just that. Using the components you indicate are available to produce the Honda hearing aid, we make a low cost hearing aid, and make it available with a small margin to cover expenses.

As someone who has worn hearing aids (on and off) since for the last 35 years, I’m stunned that the price keeps on rising when the devices themselves are not showing any improvement. I went back to hearing aids after a nearly 20 year hiatus to find that they still had all the old problems (non-selective amplification, discomfort and whistling to name just a few). These problems weren’t only still present, they’re actually worse in the newer models.

Surely hearing aids should be like glasses. Low cost and continually improving. The fact that they’re not suggests that people with impairments are simply being “ripped off” by greedy companies willing to take advantage of people with a handicap.

Are hearing aids covered by medical insurance? If so, that’s probably your answer.. If folks had to pay out of pocket the entire price, then I doubt many would be able to justify those prices, and a market for the lower-cost lower-spec but fully functional variants would emerge. Imagine (to use your analogy) that the government or your employer would subsidize the cost of a Rolls-Royce so that you only had to pay the price of a used Yugo to receive one. Where would that leave Honda?

I agree with you Saunders that they over priced. The medical field as a whole is in a price bubble. But most people to take into consideration is that hearing aids may only be $100 in components. But you have to pay for staffing to build the hearing aids (with paying for WSIB premiums and benefits), The researchers, The clinic trials, Working with Apple and Android and the clinician fees (To cover rent, staff, utilities, the professionals living, medical equipment which is triple the cost of the premium hearing aids) for programming the instruments and having follow up care. This also gets inflated because of the discounts that third parties get DVA, WSIB, ODSP. As a small business it is very hard to make a living as the fees barely are manageable to run a business. Personally insurance/ government should be covering more, the hearing aids should be cheaper and the discounts given to third parties is way to much.

I toyed with that idea using Android a couple of years ago. The first problem was a big lag so that for example lips no longer match words. That is built into Android and has been a complaint for a long time with developers on various kinds of projects. The second problem was that the pickup field of the mic is not optimized for this — it seems to be near field to the point where the sound of the wearer coughing was loud enough to be uncomfortable while more distant sounds could not be heard at all. Maybe someone working with iOS would have better results.

Hello !!!
My name is Oleg , I live in Ukraine ! I and my friends have a problem hearing … We need hearing aids I ask for help … gift of hearing instruments … Waiting for reply .. Blessings to you from Jesus! Oleg

DSP (Digital Signal Processing) is the technology used now days to process audio signals. DSP uses analog audible data converting it to digital, processing the digital data, eg; filtering, compressing, sensing and converting digital to analog data. Output to desired amplification matching the desired response curve. Serial interface to a computer program would allow the patient to program their own hearing comfort zone. Almost all hardware models would be the same. One piece of hardware using software programing. A single chip would do the job. Program the hardware rather than tweaking the hardware. Should make the aid less expensive and I could buy used ones and do my own programming.

I have a hearing problem that seems to be other than just a hearing loss. I have intermittent times when my eardrum seems to “pop.” Then a hum starts in that ear [it is my right ear] and with that
my hearing seems to decrease. It is also quite uncomfortable.
I have seen two ear specialists. Both tell me that there is no known cure for my problem and that I may have to use “trial and error” to see if anything al all will help. I have tried drops, steroids, ear popper, wax removal, massage, etc. To date, nothing has really helped.
Do you believe there is a chance that a hearing aid might help me?

I am researching low cost hearing aids from China where most hearing aids are now produced. I am tired of the extremely high price for hearing aids. Having worn aids for the last 30 years I want to source low cost aids. But how can they be tuned to suit our wide ranging hearing loss patterns?? My last $9,500 pair only lasted 2yrs before needing replacement.

What has been overlooked here is the fact that there are a multitude of hearing aids that range from $19.99 to $50.00 that perform with E-X-A-C-T-L-Y the same quality with E-X-A-C-T-L-Y the same parts even manufactured by the E-X-A-C-T-L-Y the SAME companies as those found for $100.00 dollars or more on up to the $3,000.00 mark. It is much like when I take a silk shirt to the cleaners and they charge me $7.00 to clean it and my wife takes her silk blouse to the cleaners (the same shirt just in a smaller size) and they charge her $20.00. All they are doing is sitting back and watching the suckers line up to pay between $100.00 to $3,000.00 for a $50.00 item. It is nothing more than theft partnered up quite profitably with stupidity.

Your message sounds very good, and how could anyone who is paying $6000/pr not be willing to listen to you folks. Unless I missed it in your message, I didn’t see or read of a guarantee of any kind. I would be very interested in guarantees. I might mention that I have experienced the use of Beltone, and now wear Siemens hearing aids.
I await hearing from you folks.

Thanks for the kind words, Michael! We do have a 45-day money back guarantee and a one year manufacturer’s warranty that covers any manufacturer defects on all of our hearing aids. We’ll reach out to you with more information soon!

Great info and comments. I do think Audicus may have to explain why their top of line aid cost almost as much as Costco, and some others, when just the mail order concept saves them lots of $$. $699 last time I looked.Shows how magnetic profit can be, drawing so many good guys into the pit. (Even having more than one grade of aid is a bit hokey, they should all be first rate, not good better, best. That’s for auto tires).

It is ridiculous to pay such an exuberant amount of money for small devices that are considered to be small microphone. Recently, I helped taking a very very low income person to the doctor to get her hearing aids. The doctor told her that two would cost $3,200! Yes, $3,200. She did not know where to find the money, but at the same time she wanted to be helped and given the best devices out there so she could hear. The doctor did not care and said to pay at least half down. It is time that we all should do something about this abuse in price of these devices!

Thanks for useful article. INdeed the medical industry, including the insurance companies has become a medical mafia, a branch of organized crime that is aided and abetted by the government which refuses to enforce any rules on it. Price-fixing is so normal, that the conditions you describe pertinent to hearing aids prevail over a huge swath of medical services and devices. After 2.5 months of delays, unnecessary vetting procedures (I have to prove my “innocence” that I actually need hearing aids, to prevent the horror of deceiving the insurance company because I might be trying to get them when I do not need them), huge co-pays and deductibles I have not even gotten to stage of being fitted for the hearing aids that I started to try to obtain in oct. 2015. Now after months of being monumentally abused by the insurance company, the provider and even the audiologist who will make real money on this transaction, I do not have the approvals needed, so I cannot get the very much needed hearing aids. I would be happy to testify in court about how I was systematically defrauded as part of the policy of each of these organizations in the course of trying and failing to get the hearing aids I so desperately need to teach and hear my students.

None of this surprises me. In general, all healthcare costs are highly inflated. Have you ever had a procedure done and actually reviewed the bill? The procedure charge could be $60,000, but it is discounted to what an insurance company will pay by as much as 70%. Then you pay your deductible, and the ins. company pays the remainer. So why is it that if I pay without insurance, I pay $60,000 but the insurance company gets to pay much less? Are hearing aids covered by your insurance plan? And why is it that an Epipen cost continues to skyrocket? Simple answer to all of this: totally unregulated and the consumer has no say. If affordable options are available, more needs to be done to make consumers more aware. More needs to be done to help us by comparing apples to apples. I’ve been searching for such a product by product comparison and surprisingly, I haven’t found one yet. I’ll keep searching though!

I will tell you why hearing aids cost so much. When you buy a hearing aid at the retail level say for 1500 to 3500 you are not only buying the aid in most cases you are buying the hearing professionals time and expertise for adjustments cleaning and service. Over a 5 year period of time you could see that professional 20 times for cleaning, adjustments and troubleshooting at no charge. Typically the more expensive the aid is the more advanced the technology. The better the technology the better chance you will have to hear the best that you can in more difficult listening situations. When you make any kind of purchase you want 3 things Price, quality and service. The sad part is no company can give all 3 and stay in business. You go to your local hardware store and you get quality and service. You pay a little more than Home Depot. At Home Depot you get quality and price,but not the great service you get at your local hardware store. You may pay more at your hearing aid dealer than over the internet but you get quality and service. You go to a big box store and get a cheap price are you giving up quality or service? I will let you decide.

At 83 years old, on a very low budget. my buying hearing aids in Canada is something that I would very much like to do. However, what I have noticed about many of those wearing hearing aids is that they seem to regularly go back to the place they were purchased and have them readjusted for one reason or another. I am wondering how can I purchase hearing aids in Canada from California and have them properly fitted and have their features adjusted to my specific needs, and to make future adjustments. I also would like to know if Audicus can recommend a U.S. audiologist to do my “hearing profile” without my having to purchase their hearing aids? Seems “sticky.” Thank you!

I’ve been paying almost $400 a month to pay for my hearing aids that I received in May 2016. I finish paying them off now May of this year (2017). I went to several audiologists and the prices were about the same. It boggles my mind that something that I need to function at work, to live a somewhat normal life, would cost so much. It’s not like I am giving up and saying “hey support me because I have a hearing problem”. I want to work! and I am working and doing other things but the expense is astronomical AND I’ve had to take them back to get repaired a few times already. I’m 43 years old, by the way.

i am a visually and hearing impaire senior looking fior a behind hearing aid for severe hearing loss are you in the usa or canada i am familisr with most makers i would like a price on a mini siemens nitro prices for the two models Morris

Hi Morris, We are an online company based in the USA, but we ship our products around the world. Someone from our customer service team will be in touch with you shortly to help you find a hearing aid. In the meantime, please take a look at our three models of hearing aids here: https://www.audicus.com/pages/hearing-aids

How does an individual on a low fixed income afford hearing aids? My friend lives on $1100.00 a month. Greed by audiologists is ruining elderly peoples lives. My friend needs help. He can barely hear now, because he can’t afford new and his old ones worn out.

Okay, everybody…It’s called a “Hearing App”. You can download the FREE app to either Android or Apple devices. A simple set of earphones or earbuds will bring hearing impaired back into the hearing world.

Hi Stuart! Have you taken a look at our hearing aids? We offer top tier digital hearing aids at a fraction of the cost! In fact our hearing aids range in price from $499 – $824 per device. Take a look at our different options here: https://www.audicus.com/pages/hearing-aids

Hi Sam! The tax you are charged will depend on your location, unfortunately that is not something that we can control. We might be able to find a good solution for you though, email us at test@audicus.com or call us at 855-971-0451! Lastly, in terms of programming, we do that for you right here in our office!